Everyone expects Modern Warfare 2 (MW2) to bust sales records wide open. But for all the anticipation, Activision and developer Infinity Ward may as well have abandoned any development work into PC-specific features for the multiplatform game. Compared to all earlier entries in the revered Call Of Duty series, Modern Warfare 2 is the first game that is basically all port, with as little catering to the PC gamer as feasibly possible.

You all know that there will be no dedicated servers -- the backlash over that came earlier on this month. Further bad news for PC gamers was unceremoniously delivered by way of a community chat hosted by Best Buy with Infinity Ward's Mackey McCandlish and Ryan Lastimosa yesterday.  The lack of dedicated servers aren't the only bad news -- it's just the beginning.

Modern Warfare 2 will have extremely poor multiplayer support compared to what PC gamers are accustomed to in almost all other modern FPS games. Besides the lack of server support, there will be no way for players to kick cheaters out of games. Apparently Infinity Ward hopes that hackers and cheaters will somehow not materialize, a very far-fetched idea to anyone who has ever played a popular PC FPS. Furthermore, because the PC version is basically nothing more than a straight console port, matches will be limited to 9 versus 9 -- 18 players a match is a sad number when you consider many other comparable games support at least 16 on 16 players per map. To further unbalance the game, any player that hosts a match will have an undeniable ping advantage, awarding them with an advantage online.

Beyond these deficiencies, Modern Warfare 2 will also have no support for console commands -- something that is practically an institution in PC FPS games. The strength of the PC as a gaming platform is the ability for gamers to customize and tailor game settings to their heart's content, yet it appears Infinity Ward does not think this is very important.

Additionally, there is no way to record matches, a commonplace feature seen even in lower-budget MP FPS games. The lack of this feature alone further evaporates the chances Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer will be taken seriously by the competitive PC gamer community.

On top of all that, leaning from hiding positions has not been incorporated into the game. Prior Call of Duty titles featured leaning, but alas, it seems it was removed because the game "isn't balanced" for such an ability.

It wouldn't surprise us if there are even more features the PC version lacks. In fact, the word 'lacking' just might sum up Modern Warfare 2 on PC. When asked what features were specific to the PC version, McCandlish stated "mouse control, text chat in game, and graphics settings." Suffice to say, the title faces a tremendous challenge in keeping PC gamers engaged.

You might expect all this from a smaller studio looking to curb development costs for a smaller title. But for a studio that is releasing what could be one of the bestselling games of the year, the relative dearth of exclusive PC features in favour of what appears to be a console port must be somewhat depressing for potential fans of the game. We suspect the complete absence of features in the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 will translate into low sales on the PC platform. Which, we are guessing, will promptly be blamed on piracy, and will lead to even effort spent on future PC versions of Infinity Ward titles.